Richard (Dick) Judd Schade of Oxford, died Friday, June 9, 2023 in the care of Regional Hospice of Danbury. He was 74.
Dick was born in 1949 in New Britain, CT, to the late Edmond and Grace (DeSandre) Schade. He was raised in Oxford and was a 1967 graduate of Hopkins Grammar School (now the Hopkins School) in New Haven, and a 1971 graduate of union College in Schenectady, NY, where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature. Later in life he obtained a Master’s Degree in Industrial Safety and Hygiene from the University of Minnesota at Duluth.
From 1971 through 1980, he served in the U.S. Air Force and then the Minnesota Air National Guard. Originally trained as a navigator, he later completed flight school at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona and received advance flight training at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. At the completion of his flight training, he became a pilot in the F4 Phantom jet fighter aircraft. He attained the rank of Captain.
In 1980, Dick returned home to Connecticut and was employed at Electric Boat, first as a safety engineer and then a technical writer of manuals for submarines.
In 1983 he began a forty-year career at Sikorsky Aircraft and Butler America Aerospace, writing operational and maintenance manuals foe Sikorsky helicopters. He worked until shortly before his passing.
Dick was a man of many and varied interests, from stone masonry and building exquisite and fine furniture, to playing classical guitar, hiking and backpack camping (even in winter), cross country skiing, archery and ocean kayaking. Recently, as a concession to his age, he did his camping in a van. However, he was most at ease hip deep in the cold streams of the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains, casting his fly rod for trout he would never keep. He loved the outdoors and was a true sportsman,
Due to his self-effacing and quiet nature, he was never the life of the party, but always was an integral part of any family gathering due to his remarkably quick wit and powder dry sense of humor. He was unique and family life will never be the same without him.
Dick leaves behind his brothers, Gary (Cathleen) Schade of Southbury, Thomas (Deborah) Schade of MA, and Steven (Kate) Schade of NH; sister, Sandra Murphy of MA, as well as five nephews and a niece. He also leaves behind his former wife, Kathleen Hanson of MN, with whom he maintained a warm relationship.
Per Dick’s wishes, there will be no services. The Ralph E. Hull Funeral Home, 161 W. Church St. Seymour, CT 06483 has been entrusted with his arrangements
